Neuromyths

This week, I wanted to share the work of Harvard Professor, Bruno della Chiesa, an educational neuroscientist. His presentation focused on how neuroscience is dispelling many of the ingrained myths we believe about learning. He spoke about the perpetuation of these myths due to the environments in which people live and the perspectives of those cultures. He calls them neuromyths – false beliefs about how the brain works and how people learn.

NEUROMYTHS

• The Stupid Myth: We only use 10% of our brain anyway. This is completely untrue.
• The Dubious Myth: Men and boys have different brains from women and girls. Completely false. There is no scientific backing to show that men and women have different brains. We are raised and trained to become men and women. That’s how our brains are shaped. Individual differences in talents certainly exist, and every student has a profile of strengths and weaknesses, but no evidence suggests that these profile are biologically limited by gender. These differences in performance are based on societal influence.
• The Dangerous Myth: There are critical periods when certain matters must be taught or learned. There is no time to lose as everything is important about the brain is decided by the age of three. False. There are sensitive periods, which are windows of opportunity, but not critical periods. IT IS NEVER TOO LATE TO LEARN ANYTHING.
• The Commercial Myth: Brain-based product/method—Improve your memory—Learn while you sleep. This doesn’t work.
• The Funny Myth: I’m left-brained and she’s right-brained. WRONG. There is no such thing as a right brain or left brain. The danger is that we lead to stereotyping students’ capabilities and limitations, perpetuating, for instance, a child’s difficulty in maths. “It’s wrong to imply that strengths and weaknesses come from the dominance of one hemisphere and are resistant to good teaching and learning” (p.11). “When you clash with your spouse and you compromise by saying, “I’m right brained and he/she’s left brained” you know it’s BS.”
• The Political Myth: A child’s brain can learn only one language at a time.There is no evidence to prove this. It has nothing to do with the capacity of the children. We have colonial pasts. That’s why we don’t do well with foreign languages. When you raise children bilingual, they might realize people outside of them are not
• The Worst Myth: Some people are good at learning and some others are not. This sentences a person to a lifetime of negative self-perceptions.
• Additional Information:
  • What Does the Brain Have to Do with Learning. Phi Delta Kappan, May 2011, p. 7-13 .
  • Brain Research, Learning, and Emotions